Finland and the New International Division of Labour

Foreword inery, electrical equipment, ships, prefabricated houses, and key industrial plant such as lumber mills. In the reparation lists, most items were relatively simple in technical terms, se\f-propelled river barges among the ships, for example. After Finland had discharged its reparation obligation, with great determination, aseries of trade agreements with the Soviet Union ensued in which Soviet demands on Finnish industry increased in technical sophistication. In many of these lines, Finland developed specialised products, especially in such ships as ice-breakers, luxury cruise liners, shallow-draft tankers, which proved fully competitive in Western markets.Finnish post-reparation trade with the Soviet Union is of interest not only for its effects on resource allocation and the dynamics of growth, but also for its contribution to macroeconomic stability. When the West was depressed after the OPEC price-hike of 1973, Soviet Union income and imports from Finland rose.In this book, Dr Kiljunen is especially interested in exploring whether Finland's trade with the Third World periphery will fit the static model of core and periphery, or whether the Third WorId itself will gradually make a transition similar to that of his country to the semi-periphery and perhaps uItimately the core. When the whole world is industrialised, however, it is doubtful that the core-periphery metaphor continues to be relevant. Quite apart from the emphasis on core-periphery and semi-periphery, Finland -characterised by Kiljunen as a 'Iate coming', smalI, geographically distant, semi-peripheral stateis a fascinating case study in foreign trade on its own account. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Towards a Theory of International Industrial Division of Labour....Pages 1-53 Third World Industrialisation....Pages 54-77 International Specialisation of Finland....Pages 78-111 Import Competition from LDCs....Pages 112-133 Manufactured Exports to LDCs....Pages 134-142 LDC Competition in Export Markets....Pages 143-181 Production Capital and Technology Transfers....Pages 182-197 Conclusions....Pages 198-204 Back Matter....Pages 205-240 The development of industrialization and its effect on the international division of labour is here considered first in terms of economic theory, and then by means of a case study of Finland, representing a semi-peripheral economy in the global economic system.